The field of the invention is generally that of dispensing and vending apparatuses intended primarily for dispensing newspapers, magazines and other similar publications or the like, each of which is generally identified in length, width and depth to all of the other similar merchandise objects in that particular plurality of such merchandise objects which are to be dispensed. In other words, normally, the kind of merchandise articles referred to hereinbefore may vary in thickness and even in length and width in certain cases, but that is normally true only of one representative size which is the same for all of the individual ones of the merchandise objects making up the similar plurality thereof to be dispensed.
The prior art methods and apparatus for dispensing or vending each of a plurality of the type of merchandise objects referred to above (usually newspapers, magazines, or the like, although not specifically so limited in all forms of the invention) have encountered difficulty arising from several changing situations which have frequently led to improper functioning, malfunctioning, or virtually total inoperativeness of such prior art vending apparatuses under certain conditions of operation. Consider, for example, one representative such prior art newspaper vending machine where it will be found that if the thickness dimension of each of a plurality of similar newspapers to be dispensed varies substantially from one vending machine loading operation to the next vending machine loading operation, it may be found that the vendor does not function correctly because of the changed thickness of each merchandise article (newspaper) which is to be dispensed. The changed thickness dimension may cause the machine to not dispense properly at all, or may cause it to jam, and in either case, the end result is a totally unsatisfactory performance by such a prior art newspaper vending machine.
Another problem encountered frequently in the operation of such prior art newspaper vending machines is the fact that it may provide easy access to more than one newspaper, so that more than one newspaper (or other merchandise article) can be manually removed from the vending machine each time it is operated (usually as the result of having received a predetermined proper pre-payment in the form of coins inserted into an associated coin-receiving and locking mechanism) when actually, the intent of such prior art vending machines is to dispense only one newspaper per vending operation.
It is believed to be quite apparent that any improvement in the construction of such a vending machine which would provide for a great range of thickness variation in each similar merchandise object of any particular assembly or group of a plurality of such merchandise objects, so that the dispensing operation would be optimally performed for the particular thickness of that merchandise object and any tendency to jam, or to not feed or to otherwise malfunction will be completely over come, while at the same time, not facilitating the undesired dispensing of more than one merchandise article at a time, would be a highly desirable improvement because such an arrangement would virtually completely overcome the above-mentioned prior art problems and disadvantages. Furthermore, it is believed to be apparent that such an improved construction would result in the advantages indicated which essentially flow from and occur by reason of the specific features of the present invention pointed out hereinafter.